PinePhone with keyboard


“Toots by @PINE64
2021/12/14
6:16
PINE64
@alexandra We’re looking at orders opening up in January or February.”

I really hope this isn’t about the keyboard but I can’t see Alexandra’s question...
 
Well, according to this message at the Pine64 forums it is still "coming this month".

Of course, even if they start shipping it tomorrow - I won't expect to have it this year somewhere in Europe ..... :(
 
Well, according to this message at the Pine64 forums it is still "coming this month".

Of course, even if they start shipping it tomorrow - I won't expect to have it this year somewhere in Europe ..... :(
Fingers crossed that’s still valid and I’m hoping that, in addition to fixing the key mat, a fair amount of the past two months has been spent getting inventory to their warehouses across different continents in anticipation of getting orders to customers before Christmas...

Thinking about the wording of Pine64’s reply, I guess Alexandra’s question would more likely have been about the PPP.
 
It’s quite interesting: there seems to be a really concerted effort to eviscerate the two key manufacturers of Linux-native smartphones* on ARM, though unfortunately it also seems that the ability to do so has been brought about by the manufacturers’ failings. For the wider Linux and FLOSS communities, it seems to be a case of being “stuck between a rock and a hard place” in terms of getting greater adoption.
Here’s hoping that efforts to bring about Linux-native smartphones on RISC-V go far better.

*EDIT: Of course, some are then using this as a launchpad from which to attack Linux in general :|
 
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Thankfully they are at least having the keyboard case continually manufactured so they don’t think it likely they will sell out in quick order, or at all.
 
That's good to know. I think demand will be pretty high for the keyboard.
Yeah I wonder whether they’ve factored into their production estimations the number of people who already have the PP who don’t want a PPP (at least not yet), plus the number of people who already want the PPP in addition to already having the PP, plus the people who don’t have a PP but want the PPP, all of whom may well want *at least* one keyboard case each (i.e. in addition to everyone else, those who already have a PP and want a PPP but want two keyboards so they can at least continue to use their PP as a handheld terminal at the same time as using their PPP as a PDA, although they may even want a third to act as a spare! but that might not be so reasonable to take into account for the initial production estimations...)
 
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Well - 2022 - the year of the PinePhoneKeyboard. (And the Pyra for me :D ). I believe :p&|a:

From the official update:

The PinePhone keyboard and LoRa PineDio back case will be available in the Pine Store shortly – likely at the very beginning of January. I already described the reasons why the keyboard was delayed at the last moment in the November update; long story short, both the developers and production team weren’t completely satisfied with the keyboard’s membrane. Consequently, the vendor was asked to improve the responsiveness and consistency of the key presses. Given how the keyboard has now already been in prototyping and testing for over 6 months, another few weeks to get it just right is a small price to pay to deliver a better piece of hardware. And we really want to get it right from the get-go rather than having to revisit design choices in the future. That said, I do apologize for the delay, and I am very aware that many of you are growing impatient. The good news is that we’re having many keyboard units manufactured, so the chance of us selling out in a very short amount of time is slim to none. In other words, everyone who wants one will be able to pick one up. DantNIX (Arch), postmarketOS, Manjaro, and Megi’s multiboot OS images have all been updated to support the keyboard at this time – there may be others that I’m not aware of, please check with your OS maintainer.
 

Happy New Year!
Thank you very much for that and HNY to you too!

Shipping should start January 10th
Hmm curious as to why orders are open from yesterday with it being “in stock” but not shipping ‘til the 10th? (Though I must have missed where they stated that as I didn’t know about this delay ‘til you wrote it)
 
One can speculate that they have the keyboards, but not in the retail packaging / documentation / etc.

Or maybe they just want to avoid the New Years rush :)
 
And they are shipping :cool:
 

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And I'm using it now. Really nice keys too, although it feels a bit laggy (probably the UI) and a slightly awkward size between touch-typing and thumb typing. I definitely want a more standard CLI environment as widescreen doesn't suit the mobile UI.
 
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